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HONEYBELL MARGARITAS

One last cocktail before we move into 2015. Thanks for reading this blog and please tell your friends about it! I hope 2015 brings you many eating and drinking adventures…that is, after we all diet for the first month or so and then give up!

My wife’s aunt in Florida sends us an awesome gift every year. It’s a box of Cushman’s HoneyBells. They look like fiery red bell-shaped oranges, and they are the sweetest and juiciest fruit you will ever have! But they’re not really oranges at all.

HoneyBells are a unique natural hybrid of Dancy Tangerine and Duncan Grapefruit. The plants are grafted to a sour orange root-stock, and when the tree reaches maturity, it looks just like a grapefruit tree…but with oranges growing on it.

HoneyBells are available for a very short time every winter…and that time is NOW. So if you’re at all interested, check out www.honeybell.com. Cushman’s was bought out by the fruit giant Harry & David some years ago, but the excellent quality of the product and their fine service has not changed.

I usually make my signature margarita, the Algarita, with pineapple juice. But when I get those HoneyBells in the mail, my recipe takes on a new twist:

HONEYBELL ALGARITAS

2 oz. Patron silver tequila

1/2 oz. Cointreau orange liqueur

4 oz. fresh squeezed HoneyBell juice

1/2 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice

Fill a tall glass with ice and add all the ingredients. Stir vigorously. Pour into a large margarita glass. Garnish with lime wedge. Salt optional.

The HoneyBell clock is ticking…get ‘em soon or you’ll need to wait a year!

Any other time of the year, substitute pineapple juice, orange juice or a combination of both for the Honey Bells.